May and June Challenges

Our last blog ended with my total knee replacement surgery from April 25th. I walked out of the hospital with two walking sticks, but then the challenge started. I was in a lot of pain. I had to do my exercises and rest to heel and ice it a lot to reduce the swelling. In week two I started to walk in the park behind our house. Every day a bit more and more. After two weeks the stitches were taken out, this improved a bit of the mobility in my knee. Still my biggest challenge is bending (flexion) of the knee. I need to reach 135 degrees. After the surgery it was 70 degrees, and slowly it's improving.

Walking went really well; sleeping was a nightmare. The only position with not so much pain was on my back, and I absolutely hate that. On my side with a pillow was possible for half a minute, it was just so sore.

I had to practice a whole lot of exercises, I was busy with it all day long.

Back to my knee right now, almost 11 weeks after the surgery, I can bend it to 110 degrees. It goes well, after 5/6 weeks I could sleep on my side again, no more painkillers were needed to get myself through the night, a huge relief.

June 2^nd (5,5 weeks after surgery) Rob and I saw my orthopedic surgeon. He was extremely satisfied. I was ahead of most people after 6 weeks. This is always great to hear, it gave me confindence that what I was doing, was good!

I am still stuck to icing 4 times a day, my knee is swollen and this is important to get it down. Doing my exercises is as important as all the other things.

Half of May we got our new car, a VW Tiguan. It's a nice car, but I don't like all the things that interfere with driving, but all new cars have this. Here you see our old and new car. It breaks by itself when it thinks something is dangerous, pushes you back in your lane, and warns when you are not driving straight enough.

In the third week of May, just after Sanneke left, Ard and George (Sjors) came to Edinburgh to play golf and they invited Rob for the Friday morning. They played different places in Scotland first. On Thursday they came to us, but they had Morgan our Scottish friend with them. We were told that he had to go home (Starnberg/Germany) earlier but apperently plans were changed, Morgan was there too and also brought Hannah and Jack for dinner. His son and his girlfriend live in Edinburgh. I cancelled the originally booked restaurant, and found an Italian around the corner for 8 people. We had a fun night together. On Friday Ard, Sjors and Rob played at our club and Rob played really well! In the afternoon they left to the ferry in Newcastle and Rob left to Cardiff in a very small propeller plane (max 42 pleople).

He could not sit straight in his chair, because the roof was too low, luckily it was a very short flight. The Rugby Champions League's Final took place in Cardiff and Rob had a fabulous time.

In the meantime, Rob was suffering with severe low back pain. He had a scan and x-rays, all was good. That’s of course great news, but where was the pain coming from? Tension in the muscles? Sometimes it took him two hours to get going in the morning. It frustrated him tremendously. He’s now doing exercises and it’s working!

We are getting old…..but we always bounce back!

End of May Noa came for a few days, it was too short though. We had fun together, didn't do much but it was good to have her at home. We found her two outfits for Robin and Armin's wedding. This was the weekend where Rob was in Cardiff.

Sanneke came on a Monday as Rob was in Poland this time.

We had great quality time together.

In June we saw our Scottish Heineken friends Graeme and Jackie who live in South Africa at the moment but we were posted in Nigeria together. Graeme was very ill whilst on holiday in Scotland and was hospitalised for many weeks. Now he was home, still recovering, but we really wanted to see them. We drove to Lanarkshire, a bit more than an hour away from our home. We saw a bit of Scotland we didn't know yet, and we had a longer drive with our new car. It was so wonderful seeing them. We had a great time.

June 19th I brought Ayo to his new dog sitter at the other side of the river Forth because at the end of the day we flew to Amsterdam and Athens. We arived at the hotel in the city at 01:30, pretty late. The next morning we took the ferry to Aegina, a little island not far from Athens. Our hotel was a small boutique hotel, just beautiful, great location, peaceful and it was really quiet. Every night we took a taxi to a little village and strolled around that place. "Capital" Aegina was most fun. It has lovely shops, not too many touristy stuff and great boutiques where I bought some nice things for Robin and Armin's wedding on July 19th. We are not the biggest Greek food admirers, but this week we ate deliciously! Rob and I tried out one of the bikes at the hotel, put the seat a bit higher because I can't bend my knee that far yet, this makes cycling not easy yet. I was a bit hesitant, what happens if I have an emergency brake, how do I get off the bike, so, we decided not to do it and took a taxi instead.

With the last photo above you can see what Aegina is famous for: pistachio nuts! They sell it in all forms, in icecream, cookies, body lotion and many more products.

We came back to Edinburgh Wednesday night. The next morning I picked up Ayo from the sitter, they loved him and he behaved really well. They have two dog themselves, Olive(5 years) and Lenny (1 year, full of energy). Ayo slept on their bed with them, they let him do that. Alison sent photos of him and her dogs every day, this was really thoughtful to do, and much appreciated.

Saturday night June 28th we went to a show called: "the Night Sky Show", the narrator is Adrian West, also know as VirtualAstro on social media. He's an astronomer, author, and presenter known for making astronomy fun and accessible for all ages. He used stunning visuals and breaks down complex astronomical concepts in an entertaining way. We had a fun night thanks to Jack and Ailsa; this was another Christmas (Sinterklaas) gift we got from them. Very original, love these kind of gifts.

The day after the show I left for Austria. I arrived late at Vienna Airport, took a taxi to a Park and Ride where Robin left my car. From there it was a 3 hours and 45 minutes ride to our house. Robin and Armin were already there, they could open the windows to cool down the place a bit. The heatwave also reached the moutains. Armin had to work in the area, he left early the next morning, I briefly saw him. Robin was working from home. On Wednseday night after dinner we drove to their house, this is 2 hours and 45 minutes from our house. On Thursday Robin's mother in law Edith and friend Wilma came, the four of us made some nice table decoration for the wedding. During the day I drove to Graz, when I came back it was 39 degrees!!!! It also felt that hot at home although they have shutters everywhere.

In the evening Wilma stayed for dinner and her dog Aika also played in Robin and Armin's garden. We walked the dogs in the fields behind their house where you can see the deer and hares. Luckily the dogs didn't see or smell them. These three dogs are also guests at the wedding next week.

On Friday I flew to Frankfurt from Graz, there I saw Rob he flew in from London.

Frankfurt airport is so big, it was hard to find each other so Rob said that we best meet at the platform of the train station at the airport. This worked. It's only half an hour to Mainz. We quickly checked into our hotel and had a half an hour rest before we headed to the restaurant where we met Anna and her family. The occasion was a festive weekend with central Anna's 30th birthday on Sunday July 6th and a week before her younger brother David turned 25, older brother Michael (33) and Granddad(90) had also recently their birthdays.

Mainz is a lovely city, the old town is beautiful. We had dinner at a Wine house, with lots of local dishes. The next day was the big celebration day with 55 people. The temperature was around 30 degrees, a bit too warm. On Sunday we had brunch at Anna's parents home. Around 12 we left to get to the airport on time. Rob flew back via London to Edinburgh and I flew to Graz. Rob had almost two hours delay at London Heathrow and I had 1,5 hours delay, and arrived at Robin around 20:30 and decided not to drive home but spend the night there. Armin had a lot of rain on his way to the base in Vienna and when we checked the weather forecast, there were also severe thunderstorms on my way home. Monday morning I drove home.

This week Loes, Lianne and Robin arrived on Friday. Noa will come on Monday and we will leave the mountains on Wednesday when the wedding festivities will start and the rest of our family will arrive in Bad Gleichenberg!

More about this in our next blog.

Stay safe everyone.